Security Snapshot: State of the Cannabis Industry

Cannabis products can be a life-saving treatment for many people. People should be able to access that treatment securely, and employees producing those products should be kept safe and secure as well, said Carrie Goetz, PSP, principal and CTO of StrategITcom.

One of the challenges, however, is that each jurisdiction has its own framework for what security in the cannabis industry should look like, added Goetz, who is also the chair of the ASIS International Cannabis Security Community Steering Committee, in an interview with Chuck Harold for ASIS’s Security Snapshot series.

“Some of those make sense, some of them make literally no sense whatsoever,” Goetz said. “So, the idea was to come up with best practices from the security industry to help states and those in the industry figure out—in a legal manner—the least common denominator of these are the things you need to do.”

The ASIS Cannabis Community is helping to create those best practices, looking at the various verticals of the legal cannabis market to provide guidance. Goetz added that based on that work, ASIS is planning to go through the process to make that guidance into an official standard.

“The idea will hopefully help—for sure multistate operators so they’re on a level-playing field from one state to the next—but even the smaller guys, who are trying to sort it out and figure out what to do,” Goetz said.

And ideally, this will create a dynamic where security is a core part of the business—not an add-on after an organization is up and running.

“...especially where there’s money involved and life safety involved, it’s harder to add that security as an afterthought. It’s much easier to do upfront,” Goetz added. “So, your security plans are laid out, everyone knows what to expect. Everyone that’s brought on to a project can be schooled on what the best practices are.”

The ASIS Cannabis Steering Committee is currently creating a draft of the standard, which will then be reviewed by a technical committee later in 2022. For more information on the ASIS Standards & Guidelines process, visit its Web page.

For more information on the ASIS International Cannabis Security Community, visit ASIS its page on ASIS Connects.